June 12, 2010 Central Kansas Severe Storms and Dog

After a pretty bad prior 3 days chasing, at least this one was fun and
interesting(10th kept a dumb boundary around Ogallala honest, it waited
till 9 to fire...CO beast happened.....11th wanted to do the sw-ne
boundary/convergence deal to the east again.....but since upslope payed
off the day before and they were so similar...even though I noted the
damn cooler 700 temps and more sun than the east boundary had the day
before...I regrettedly chose uplsope on the 11th and not that obvious
east play... and a stationary beast goes up west of Hill City....9th was
lame.....just in shoot thy self mode by the 12th.....grrrrr).

Anyway!

On the 12th targeted the boundary ne of Dodge City KS and had some fun
at least.

I took 4 stills right here and 2 stills of the dog later lol... and
that is it. It was essentially a video day. There was some really sweet
racing dust scenes and zero visibility in them west of Larned. I tried to
core it before that when GR3 was saying 4 inch, but like always, I just
kill the maxed out VIL area when I try.

Got into the main deal that was tornado warned forever as it went ne
on the boundary, at Great Bend. Pretty interesting in town there, with
rapid strong very obvious wind shifts and crap flying, with obvious
circular motions on the bowing shelf and behind it with this big low
area.

I think I saw a tornado ne of there once I finally got ne of it, in
its path more. Couple miles away and I was like, that looks like a
tornado, then it looked a lot more like one and then fell apart. 90% sure
it was, should be easy to tell on contrast vid capture if I get that
bored.

Then it got "interesting" and perhaps my most memorable chase
experience happens. I was up in its path after the likely tornado and the
structure to the south got a wicked, pronounced horseshoe shape, with a
racing dust plume in the middle of it. I was very much north of that,
actually it was very much se of me, just se. I was right where any rain
wrapped tornado would track. Stuff to the west and north was pulling back
south, as the north side of the curling gust front to my se spun west
near me. Then got strong south winds, in that rfd. This near Bushton KS.

Motion made it obvious at the least it was going to get real windy
real quick, so I moved away from the poles that would surely come down on
me if they came down. Stopped a block from there maybe. In this driveway.
All that was down this small gravel thing was an old trailer, 3 vehicles,
a line of trees,....and a big black lab walking over to me.

Shit was JUST about to hit the fan. I'm parked RIGHT next to the
highway, window open to the ne, ready to shoot video(of wind and rain),
as the dog comes over. He looked nice enough, but I figured looking at
the place he may not be. Just kinda had, angry old dog area look to it.

Pretty quickly I had dog paws in my window and his head. At the same
time high winds kick in. Smack in the middle of a tornado warning, and
the rain wrapped "area of interest" starting to hit. Raging rain and
wind...and this dog. I feared 3 things for that dog. Those trees blowing
over on him. Wind driven large hail. Or just freaking out and ending up
in that highway and getting hit. I mean my front tires were 5-10 feet
from the highway I'd guess.

I open my door and let him take cover on the "calm" side of the car.
Figured he'd let me pet him and stay there, and if it got too crazy I
could just hold him there. Power poles get snapped in this area according
to storm reports. It was just nasty.

Well he soon began trying to get in. I wasn't sure just how much I
wanted to try and prevent that, as hell if I know how this strange dog
will respond, in a severe storm no less. I was like, ok so when do you
bite me for pushing back against you. Mostly he was fine.

Each time higher winds would hit he'd get nervous and move around,
wanting in. Next thing I know his head plows in, under the steering
wheel, followed by the rest of him. This is probably an 80 lb black
lab....in a Mustang. But under the damn steering wheel!

As this started happening I had wanted to put my seat belt back on,
because for all I knew a tornado was coming in that area and figured if
it was to flip the car around, I'd at least like to be buckled in, given
my damn door was open with this dog. But yeah, he plows in under there
killing any other plans. I now had to figure out how to stop his
progression without getting bit in the process.

I turn the car on so I could move the seat back, not having a clue if
that would help anyway. Still can't believe how he was right then lol.
Thankfully he then managed to turn around and not wig out as he realized
he was stuck. Or wind up on my passenger seat and laptop. All this while
raging wind and rain rock the car.

Oh yeah, lol, when I was moving the seat back and trying to think of
how to fix this, I thought I could coax him back out with some pringles.
So I had those grabbed and open as he was getting spun around under my
steering wheel. It was a tall can, half full. It was his now. It was just
easier to give them to him at that point, because he was very interested
in them. So there we were, black lab on the floormat of my Mustang, power
pole snapping wind and rain outside..and inside for that matter....and
he's finishing off my can of pringles to top it all off. I was just kind
of like, just how did we get to this point. How'd this happen.

I'd been petting him before that, trying to calm him down, and to a
large degree keep him out of my car! He kept standing up on the frame
before finally shooting in there. So by the time it was all over I was
100% soaked, with black dog hair all over. So much rain had come down,
the handle inside the door there was FULL(part out of picture).

It's funny to think back about another dog deal in 2001 and how that
was a small dog and a truck, a bit opposite of this ordeal. I just
happened to pull in his driveway, then when he came over, I figured, well
I know he'll come through it fine if I help him. Probably would
anyway(you don't know what will happen before hand), but just one of
those deals when you know you can make it so. Sitting through it there
would be fun anyway and petting a dog in an open door is not a big deal
to do. I just never figured he'd end up under the damn steering wheel
like he did. Just picture him standing in there with his head near the
gear shifter and back under the steering column, stuck as hell and not
able to go in reverse...while hurricane KS is going on outside. It was
like one of the gusts scared him and he said, "coming in!" And this still
is after I got my seat back as far as it would go. Before that it was
twice as close to the dash. It was seriously an "ah shit" moment just how
far in and how stuck he was...and no real forward option from there. I
mean look how much room he takes up under there with the seat back and
him laying down lol. It was tricky, him getting turned around from having
his chin over on the gear shift standing up, to that layed down position.